Fielder leads Tigers over White Sox

Detroit Tigers’ Prince Fielder is greeted by orii Hunter after scoring on a two-run home run off Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Dylan Axelrod during the first inning. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

DETROIT — Seems like as soon as Prince Fielder is signed up for the Home Run Derby, he starts warming up.

Last season, before he won his second, Fielder hit three homers in the week before the All-Star break.

Wednesday, he began his pre-All-Star binge with a bang, hitting his 16th home run in the second inning, setting the stage for an 8-5 win.

Just like a home run derby entrant should.

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“I think it’s kinda the way Prince Fielder’s approach is to batting practice. He always tries to hit the ball a long way out of the ballpark,” ESPN’s Nomar Garciaparra said on Wednesday’s Home Run Derby conference call. “Every swing seems to be fierce. He doesn’t take a twostrike approach at any swing, it seems like.”

Why is Fielder so successful in the contest, which some complain messes up your swing? Because it’s nothing new for him to swing from the heels.

“Short, exact swing and a violent swing, but he’s used to swinging that way. This is not out of the norm for him, this contest, because he has a home run hitting contest every day in BP (batting practice),” ESPN’s John Kruk said. “The amount of swings he takes and the torque he puts on those swings, this is second nature to him where other guys are trying to figure it out, he’s already got it figured out, because he does it all the time.”

Continuing the theme from Tuesday’s series opener, it seemed like every run was scored with two outs. In all, 20 of the 27 runs scored so far in the series — and all eight of the Tigers’ runs Wednesday — came with two outs.

Fielder’s two-out, two-run home run in the second inning got the Tigers on the board, then Austin Jackson answered a Chicago run in the second with a two-out RBI triple in the bottom of the inning.

The Tigers nearly squandered a third-inning rally that started with three singles and a walk, but Alex Avila rescued it with a two-out, bases-loaded single, driving in a pair of runs to make it 5-1.

Porcello would allow the White Sox to whittle it down to two runs with a pair of runs in the top of the inning, but a diving stab by right fielder Torii Hunter — turning a potential extra-base hit into a sacrifice fly — kept the damage to a minimum.

Miguel Cabrera would greet reliever Ramon Troncoso with a two-out RBI single, then Fielder and Victor Martinez would add ones of their own, making it 8-3.

That was plenty of run support for Rick Porcello, more than he’s accustomed to. He came into the game averaging 3.82 runs of support per start, only 64th-best among qualified starters across baseball.

“He’s doing OK. Been up and down a little bit. Was terrific his last start,” manager Jim Leyland said. “He’s had some real good ones, and of course, he had the nightmare one at Anaheim, which really hurt his numbers, ERA-wise. But he’s doing fine.”

Since that start in Anaheim, Porcello has struck out nearly eight batters per nine innings pitched, a strikeout rate nearly half again higher than both last year’s (5.5) and his career (5.3). Through his inning-ending strikeout in the sixth, he had six, giving him 40 since the start of June — as many as Justin Verlander, who won three of the last four MLB strikeout titles.

He’d give up three runs in six innings of work — the definition of the stat “quality start” — giving him seven in his last nine outings.

Bruce Rondon pitched the seventh, and gave up his first big-league homer, a solo shot by Gordon Beckham, followed by a walk, two wild pitches and a two-out RBI double, making it 8-5.

Drew Smyly pitched a scoreless eighth, followed by Joaquin Benoit pitching a scoreless ninth for his eighth save.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.